Yipo

Some silent books are for quiet contemplation, some are for adressing life´s big questions. Others are for dancing,singing, playing and laughing. Yipo is such a book - a funny, playful and adventourus little book that opens for creative mediation and lots of fun.

The book comes in a cardboard box. All the necessary text is printed on the box, leaving the book completely wordless. This is a method that has been used for several other silent books, best known is Enzo and Iela Maris legendary transformatory tales. Mari´s books had spiral binding, Gedovius has chosen the leporello for this story. The effect is the same - the format, combined with the complete lack of any text, makes the story never-ending, leaving the reader  to choose where to start and where to stop.

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Gedovius uses a common theme in silent books, a thread connecting the characters with each other. In this case, it is a blue thread, from a monster´s sweater. The authors vivid imagination comes through in all the little details, and it is very obvious that he had a lot of fun making this book.  We see monsters fishing, weightlifting, playing music, tightrope walking, trying to eat each other... There are enourmous crocodile-like monsters, grandma-like knitting monsters and tiny cute monsters.  The all-white background not only makes the bright colors pop, it also leaves lots of room for the reader to imagine the surroundings.

I am a big fan of Juan Gedovious wordless books.  It´s pretty obvious that he has a lot of fun making them! He is a master of facial expressions, and perfectly matches the shape of each character to its energy. Each funny monster and scary creature can be examined again and again and the reader will constandly discover something new. 
 

The book is printed on thick cardboard, solid enough to be played with, read and loved again and again.​ Yipo is over ten years old now, but is still in sale in some stores, so make sure to grab a copy before they disappear!